Gazpacho Spinach Salad
This refreshing, veggie-filled Gazpacho Spinach Salad Recipe with a piquant Red Wine Vinaigrette got rave reviews from my book club.
This Spinach Salad Recipe paired delightfully with our flank steak fajitas plus it is vibrant, healthy and tasty.
Spinach Salad Recipe
I was hosting our holiday book club meeting so I pulled out all the stops for dinner. My gracious guests loved every single dish, including this twist on the classic spinach salad with a tangy spinach salad dressing. Many spinach salad recipes, like my mom’s version with strawberries, has a sugar-laden dressing. This version was much more suitable to complement the grilled beef in my entree.
What Is Gazpacho?
I was introduced to gazpacho as a child. My dad worked at the Physics Institute in Aspen, Colorado, for a number of summers. It was a chance for us Midwest born and raised kids to be exposed to ballet, concerts, and more exotic food than we found in Ames, Iowa. It was in Aspen where my parents first experienced gazpacho, and it wasn’t long after that my mom found a recipe to make at home.
Gazpacho is a cold, blended Spanish soup of raw vegetables that came from the southern Andalusia region of Spain. Popular in both Spain and Portugal, it’s served most often during the hot and sultry summer months.
A classic Gazpacho recipe typically contains tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, bell peppers, olive oil, and wine vinegar. Stale bread is often blended in as a thickening agent, though my mom’s version was topped with homemade croutons instead.
Now there are numerous varieties of “gazpacho,” most being cold blended soups with either a fruit or vegetable base.
Easy Spinach Salad Recipe
As a huge fan of gazpacho, I’ve been drawn to a couple of gazpacho salad recipes. This easy spinach salad just involves some chopping and whisking. The red wine vinaigrette provides the perfect amount of tartness, and it complemented the chopped vegetables wonderfully.
What to Put in a Spinach Salad?
First, there must be spinach. Baby spinach is always preferred for salads as the young stems are more tender than with regular spinach.
The old classic spinach salad has a hot bacon dressing, spinach, mushrooms, onions, bacon, and often hard-boiled eggs. Then there is the strawberry spinach salad with spinach, fresh strawberries, and a very sweet vinegar-based salad dressing. Plus there are many other variations of spinach salads and dressings.
But for this Gazpacho Spinach Salad, it’s the typical gazpacho vegetables that take center stage. Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and onions are chopped into bite-sized pieces and served over spinach with the red wine vinaigrette.
PRO-Tip: If you don’t like the sharp taste of raw onions in your salad, dice them small, then soak them in ice water for about 10 minutes. Drain and add to your salad. They will become much milder!
More Salads You’ll Love:
- Spinach, Almonds and Berries Salad
- Marinated Vegetable Salad
- Greek Salad with Feta
- Corn Basil and Tomato Salad
- Superfoods Salad
- More Best Salad Recipes
- More Easy Healthy Recipes
This recipe was first posted in June 2011. Photos and text were updated in 2019.
Gazpacho Spinach Salad
A spinach salad filled with chopped vegetables and topping with a red wine vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 pound of Campanelle tomatoes, cut into eighths or grape tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 English cucumber, peeled and diced
- 2 six-ounce packages of baby spinach
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 3/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
Combine tomatoes, onion, peppers, and cucumbers in a bowl; toss. Put one bag of spinach into a serving bowl, layer with half the diced vegetables. Add the second bag of spinach followed by the rest of the veggies.
Mix all dressing ingredients except the oil. Slowly add oil, whisking to combine. Toss salad with dressing right before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 305Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 23gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 130mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 3gSugar: 7gProtein: 3g
49 Comments on “Gazpacho Spinach Salad”
Hola, this salad looks sooo sooo amazing seriously. So refreshing and delicious with all the beautiful fresh produce!! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe of this beautiful salad. Regards.
What a beautiful, delightful and delicious salad! This would brighten any table! 🙂 ~Valentina
Dear Liz, what a nice blog post – loved reading about the times you spent in Aspen and the fact that your mum prepared Gazpacho when you returned home. This salad version of a gazpacho looks delicious, colorful and healthy and seems perfect for being served on a warm summer’s day.
The salad in me is loving this Gazpacho salad. The lovely bright colors and that dressing sounds so good.
That salad dressing does sound wonderful! And though it isn’t gazpacho season yet, this will help get me through. I am needing something healthy!
I love the colors in this salad and I love gazpacho. Sounds so delicious.
All those fresh colors look really good after all the holiday indulgence! The company bought lunch today and I wanted something with a veggie… Does a hoagie count??? :@)
Refreshing and delicious with all the beautiful fresh produce!
I love love Colorado – good things definitely are there/ come from there, lucky you when you were a kid! Gazpacho is delicious and this salad is very innovative, never heard of gazpacho salad and must try it. I say, the more onions, the better! Thanks, Liz and take care.